# Suppressed spontaneous emission for coherent momentum transfer

## TL;DR

This paper demonstrates an experimental technique using ultrafast laser pulses to achieve strong optical forces with minimal spontaneous emission, significantly improving molecular and atomic manipulation efficiency.

## Contribution

The study introduces a stimulated optical force method driven by ultrafast pulses, achieving over ten times reduction in spontaneous emission compared to traditional radiative scattering.

## Key findings

- Achieved up to 19 ħk momentum transfer per spontaneous emission
- Demonstrated over tenfold suppression of spontaneous emission
- Enhanced molecular beam slowing with increased force efficiency

## Abstract

Strong optical forces with minimal spontaneous emission are desired for molecular deceleration and atom interferometry applications. We report experimental benchmarking of such a stimulated optical force driven by ultrafast laser pulses. We apply this technique to accelerate atoms, demonstrating up to an average of $19$ $\hbar k$ momentum transfers per spontaneous emission event. This represents more than an order of magnitude improvement in suppression of spontaneous emission compared to radiative scattering forces. For molecular beam slowing, this technique is capable of delivering a many-fold increase in the achievable time-averaged force to significantly reduce both the slowing distance and detrimental losses to dark vibrational states.